This is big news! The Ontario Genealogical Society has announced an ambitious plan to digitize every single book in the society's library and to make those books available to members and eventually available to the general public. To cover expenses, a fee will be charged for each book borrowed.
The society plans to scan both copyrighted and out-of-copyright books. This apparently is legal as long as only one digital file of the book is checked out at a time and the digital file is created from a physical book that remains in the library at the time. This method has already been used by a number of other libraries, but this is the first time I have heard of a genealogy library using the "check books out electronically" method.
Once the system is fully operational, books will be available to patrons around the world.
Will this become the wave of the future? Will we be able to check newer, copyrighted books out of various libraries in the future? I have no idea, but I certainly hope so. I'd suggest that we all closely watch the efforts at the Ontario Genealogical Society Library.
The following announcement was written by the Ontario Genealogical Society:
The Board of the Ontario Genealogical Society has approved an ambitious program to digitize and place online the Society's provincial library.
The online e-Library will operate much as a regular library. Anyone will be able to borrow a book and, if a copy of the book is available, will receive a coded file containing the book. The patron will be able to read the book for a period of time, say two weeks, after which the file becomes unavailable. The book cannot be copied. These restrictions ensure that copyright is not infringed.
The 3,500 family histories held by the library will be scanned first. Periodicals and OGS publications still in print will not be placed online. It will take well over a year to get the entire library online. The system will be tested within the next few weeks when about a hundred books will be placed online within the Members Only section of the OGS website. The system will be available to the general public in the early fall when more than a thousand books become available.
The Society is investing $16,500 in software, to be taken from the Endowment Fund, and will incur an annual expense of several thousand dollars, essentially to ensure that copyright is not infringed. As a result there will have to be a fee for each book borrowed. The Board will determine the fee at its May meeting. It is expected to be small for Society Members and much larger for non-members. OGS Members should note that OGS in-print publications will not be included in the e-Library.
My thanks to David Thompson for telling me about this new service.
